On November 21, 2025, Iqbal Mohamed, the independent-minded MP for Dewsbury & Batley, announced his resignation from Your Party, the fledgling left-wing political group co-founded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. His departure, delivered via a statement on X (formerly Twitter), marks the second high-profile exit from the party in just a week, following Blackburn MP Adnan Hussain’s decision to step back from the group’s steering process. The timing could hardly be worse for Your Party, which is set to hold its first annual conference in Liverpool on November 29, 2025, a meeting that was supposed to solidify its identity and leadership structure but now threatens to be overshadowed by internal turmoil and public rifts.
Mohamed’s resignation was blunt and unequivocal. He cited “false allegations and smears made against me and others, and reported as fact without evidence,” calling the experience both “surprising and disappointing.” Despite this, he affirmed, “I am confident that my colleagues and I have acted professionally, patiently, and in good faith throughout.” Mohamed’s statement, as reported by The Independent and BBC, also included a nod to the ideals he hoped Your Party could embody, expressing hope that it might yet become “a genuine, inclusive force for positive change.”
The roots of Mohamed’s departure run deeper than personal grievance. Tensions had been simmering for months between him and Sultana, particularly over issues of gender and identity. Earlier in the week, Mohamed had posted a series of gender-critical statements on social media, asserting, “White or brown men shouldn’t be telling or forcing biological women to give up their rights and private spaces to other biological men, black, white, brown or trans. What about the biological women’s rights? They have rights which I will always fight to protect. I also believe in the human rights of all trans and LGBTQ+ people but not by taking away the hard-won rights of women.”
Sultana’s camp was swift to respond. A spokesperson told The Telegraph, “Zarah will always stand with the trans community. She believes an ironclad commitment to trans rights is non-negotiable for a socialist party.” This clear ideological divide over the intersection of women’s and trans rights is emblematic of the broader fractures within Your Party—a group that, since its inception earlier this year, has struggled to reconcile its competing factions and ambitions.
Adnan Hussain’s resignation, just a week prior, underscored a different but related set of grievances. Hussain, who initially championed the party as a “political home with mass appeal” and a “force capable of challenging the rise of far-right rhetoric,” became disillusioned by what he described as “persistent infighting, factional competition, and a struggle for power, position and influence rather than a shared commitment to the common good.” He also cited a “toxic” culture toward Muslim men, echoing concerns voiced by others about veiled prejudice within the party’s ranks. According to BBC and The Independent, these rifts have been present nearly from the party’s announcement, with insiders describing ongoing “diplomatic efforts” to heal divisions between Corbyn and Sultana.
As the party limps toward its founding conference, the toll of these disputes is plain to see. The number of MPs formally aligned with Your Party has dwindled to just four, and the Independent Alliance—once the backbone of the group—has been reduced to Corbyn, Shockat Adam, and Ayoub Khan. Sultana herself left the Independent Alliance on September 18, 2025, though she remains a vocal force within the wider movement. The upcoming Liverpool conference is supposed to be a turning point: delegates are expected to vote on the party’s founding constitution, political statement, and whether to adopt a co-leadership model, a proposal strongly backed by Sultana. She is also set to host a rally billed as “Zarah’s eve of conference Your Party rally” in the hours before the main event.
Yet, for all the turbulence, Your Party’s supporters have not been insignificant. At its peak, the group reportedly boasted more than 750,000 backers, a formidable base for any new political movement. Polling data, cited by The Independent and BBC, suggested that Your Party could command as much as 15% of the national vote, placing it in a statistical tie for third place with Labour, behind Reform at 34% and the Tories at 17%. Pollster Luke Tryl noted that the prospect of a new Corbyn-led party “took 10 per cent of the vote, taking votes from Labour and the Greens.”
However, the party’s initial momentum has faltered. The Green Party, buoyed by the election of left-wing activist Zack Polanski as leader, has surged in both polls and membership, siphoning off the very voters Your Party hoped to attract—those disaffected with the Labour government and seeking a more radical alternative. Leading pollster Professor Sir John Curtice warned Labour was “vulnerable to the left,” with the Greens “taking votes off them in that direction” at the last election. Still, Curtice sounded a note of caution, remarking, “At the moment, I’m waiting to see whether Corbyn manages to get his act together and manages to create a political party that has some thoughts and organisation behind it.”
Behind the scenes, the internal strife appears rooted in more than just policy disagreements. Sources quoted by New Statesman and The Independent point to a growing alienation of Muslim communities from Your Party, particularly in light of attacks on Independent Alliance MPs by ultra-left activists and Sultana’s assertion that “there is no place for socially conservative views in a left-wing party.” In a September interview, Sultana described the group as “a progressive, socialist party” whose mission is to “speak up to the most marginalised voices.” She added pointedly, “Anyone who feels like they can’t subscribe to…these principals, then [Your Party] might not be for them.”
With the founding conference just days away, party insiders are divided over the road ahead. Some remain optimistic that the public airing of differences will ultimately lead to greater unity once the dust settles. Others fear the current crisis is “just the tip of the iceberg,” warning that the fragile electoral coalition Your Party was created to represent—bridging the Muslim vote, energized by issues like Gaza, and the wider left—is already floundering. As one party source told New Statesman, it will take more than a conference and a new constitution to win back disillusioned supporters and mend the fractures now laid bare for all to see.
For now, Iqbal Mohamed will continue to serve as an independent MP, working with the Independent Alliance, while Your Party faces an uncertain future. Whether the Liverpool conference can provide the fresh start its leaders hope for—or whether new resignations and disputes will further erode its ambitions—remains to be seen. British politics, never short on drama, has gained yet another chapter in the ongoing saga of the left.
